October 8th, 2012 Despite a banking and financial crisis of near biblical proportions in 2007-09, which saw the collapse and state-funded rescue of many of Britain’s banks, the country’s regulators have singularly failed to get to the bottom of what happened. The way in which the Financial Services Authority has sought to close the book [...]
September 26th, 2012 [Ian Fraser's introduction] In this speech, Robert Jenkins blows apart the self-serving myths that bankers and their lobbyists have been peddling since the financial crisis ripped apart the global financial system in 2007-. He also explains that, unfortunately ‘captured’ regulators and politicians have swallowed the myths whole. The unsurprising consequence is that post-crisis [...]
September 17th, 2012 (Updated 11.25am) (edited Dec 16th 2012) Studiously ignoring the roles of “establishment” figures like Sir James Crosby and Lord Stevenson in the demise of disastrous Edinburgh-based bank HBOS, the Financial Services Authority is seeking to heap all the ordure on the less establishment Peter Cummings. Now I am not suggesting that Cummings is [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: July 22nd, 2012 Editorial note: This is a more detailed and complete version of an article published in the Sunday Herald on July 22nd, 2012. Police are poised to press charges against several HBOS bankers and consultants after a two-year investigation into large-scale fraud, money laundering and corruption [...]
February 27th, 2010 (updated June 22nd, 2012) HBOS’s entrance on The Mound; Image: The We Lessons must be learnt from the short and calamitous history of HBOS, the bank which effectively went bust in September 2008, writes Ian Fraser (Note: This article was first posted under the headline “HBOS: When did the rot set in? [...]
May 16th, 2012 The Financial Services Authority today imposed a lifetime ban on Anthony Verrier, a senior executive at interdealer brokers BGC Partners, who two years ago was described by a judge as a liar with an extraordinary proclivity for “losing” Blackberries and mobile phones. On March 18th, 2010, Verrier (pictured right) was found guilty of orchestrating [...]
Editorial note: June 22nd, 2012 A revised and updated version of this blog is now available via the following link:- The Worst Bank in the World? HBOS’s Calamitous Seven Year Life
February 14th, 2012 The allegations of “a black hole”, “reckless commercial property lending in 2005-07″, “dodgy accounting” etc at National Australia Bank’s UK subsidiaries Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank (which I’ve now heard from at least four reliable and independent senior banking sources) just won’t seem to go away. I touched on this in an [...]
January 18th, 2012 Ian Fraser’s introduction: This blog was written by Golem XIV, a pseudonym for filmmaker and author David Malone. The lies which got us to the purgatory we are in are being told all over again, right now, inside every bank in the Western world. Not by accident but on purpose, by men with [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: January 15th, 2012 Eamonn Rice struck off by ICAS for professional misconduct One of Scotland’s highest-profile chartered accountants has described as “excessive” the ruling that led to his being struck off by the professional body, the ICAS. Eamonn Rice, a former partner and head of financial services at [...]